The Interplay between Gender and Learning Styles: Implications for Second Language Teaching
Learning styles refer to the variation that exists in the ability of people to accumulate interpret and assimilate information. A learning style is an individual’s preferred way of learning and scholars (Reid (1995), Wagaman (2008), Montgomery and Groat (1998) to mention a few) have established that when a teacher’s style matches the student’s learning styles then learning will occur. Research evidences (Howe 1997), Burham (2008) and Sax Leonard (2008)) support that gender plays a unique role in the way we learn. This paper thus seeks to investigate the relationship (if any) between gender and learning styles with its’ possible implications for language teaching. The paper draws conclusions that majority of females’ preferred learning style is the diverging and assimilating (thinkers than doers) while a greater percentage of the males fall under converging and accommodating learning styles (doers than thinkers). Girls are motivated by the desire to impress adults while boys are motivated by the object or material to be learnt. This of course has serious implications for language teaching. Lastly, language teachers are encouraged to develop their instructional packages to cater for the differences in the students’ gender and learning styles. Other stakeholders in the education industry are to accommodate the knowledge of different genders and learning styles in educational planning.
